Stories, analysis, highlights, and everything Yankees from an up & coming sports journalist.

My 23rd Birthday and a Win Over the Phillies

“Nobody likes you when you’re 23.”–The great words of Blink-182 in their song “What’s My Age, Again?”

Yesterday was my 23rd birthday and I could not have picked a better way to spend it: with my dad at the Yankees-Phillies game. It’s almost as if I received two presents in one; I was privileged to go to the first game of the 2009 World Series rematch and the Yankees won 8-3.

It doesn’t get any better than that.

A few weeks before my College Graduation, I told my dad that the Yankees were playing the Phillies on my birthday. I expressed interest in going to the game, but because the game was such a hot ticket (it being a World Series rematch and all) I wasn’t sure if my dad could get the tickets.

In the end he was able to get them and I couldn’t have been happier.

Our seats were in the Terrace section on the first base side–in the front row. At first this frightened me, because I am deathly afraid of heights. The Terrace section, although not the highest part of Yankee Stadium, is pretty steep. When we walked into the Great Hall, I’ll admit I was a little apprehensive of going all the way up.

But once my dad and I reached our seats and the starting lineups were announced, I felt a little better. All of a sudden my feelings seemed content and the heights did not bother me at all. It was time for me to have some fun and be liberated of my acrophobia; after all, it was my birthday!

Not long after first pitch, a few people came in to sit in our row. As fate would have it, a young man (about my age) wearing a Phillies hat sat next to me. Thinking out loud, I said “Oh no! I’m sitting next to a Phillies fan?”

Everyone in our section heard me and laughed.

The kid looked at me, smiled and said, “Don’t worry! I’m not one of those obnoxious fans!” I could tell he was a good guy so I laughed, shook his hand, and said, “OK.”

I wound up talking a lot of baseball with him for the rest of the night. My birthday actually came up in one of our conversations and he even wished me a happy birthday.

To start the game, Roy Halladay shut down the Yanks 1-2-3. “Was he going to toss another perfect game tonight?” I wondered. Not on my watch!

In the bottom of the second, Brett Gardner tripled to score Nick Swisher and Jorge Posada, giving the Yankees a quick 2-0 lead. Not long after that I received a text message from my friend Dave that read, “Why is it that Brett Gardner triples every time you go to a game?”

Of course he was joking. But I was at the game last May when he tripled and hit the inside-the-park home run–that’s why he kidded with me about it.

In the third inning, Curtis Granderson stepped up to the plate. A lot of fans in our section were hoping for something to happen. I jokingly shouted, “Come on Curtis! Halladay is not a lefty, you can hit him!”

And hit him he did.

Granderson proceeded to belt a long home run to right field, a solo blast to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. It was Granderson’s fifth home run of the year.

After Granderson’s solo job, it got better.

Later in the frame, Nick Swisher stepped up to the plate and smacked a two-run home run, his 11th round-tripper of the year. The Yankees were now leading 5-0 and the Phillies fan I was sitting next to suddenly became very silent. I think he had a feeling at this point that his team was not winning the game.

He may have piped down for awhile but in the fourth inning got loud again. The Phillies rattled Yankees’ starter CC Sabathia for three runs. Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez both cracked RBI singles, and Ben Francisco grounded into a fielder’s choice (thanks to a “mental lapse” by Sabathia) to score Ryan Howard.

Sabathia did not cover the bag at first on what should have been a double play. The man behind me had been drinking and yelled, “Hey CC! Pretend there’s a cheeseburger at first base and cover the bag!”

It was said out of inebriation, but it was still funny. The drunken fan provided me with more entertainment than the actual game…I think.

The next inning Mark Teixeira stepped up to the plate against Halladay. He pulled a fly ball that seemed to keep on tailing toward the right field foul pole. At first I thought it was a foul ball. But the crowd erupted and I looked over to my left and saw Teixeira rounding the bases; that’s when I knew it was a goner.

A solo home run to give the Yanks a 6-3 lead. The ball literally just cleared the 314 sign in right field–not the most glorious home run, yet I was happy he left the park. It was Teixeira’s 10th home run of the season.

The game moved on to the seventh inning and the Yankees tacked on two more runs. Francisco Cervelli singled to score Teixeira and Jorge Posada, giving the Yanks an 8-3 edge. A few sections to my right I noticed a girl (again, probably my age) holding a sign that read, “Francisco Cer-SEXY.”

I immediately thought of Virginia over on Live, Eat, and Breath Yankees. She always posts about Cervelli and how she likes him. I suppose there are many young ladies out there who think the Yankee backstop is a heartthrob!

The Yanks scored those two runs off reliever Antonio Bastardo. I don’t want to get into too many details about what the drunken man behind me had to say, but I’ll just say he had a lot to say about Bastardo’s last name.

Again, the fans probably entertained me just as much as the game.

Right after the eighth inning, the Phillies fan who I chatted with for the better part of the night was heading out. He once again shook my hand and wished me a happy birthday. He knew the game was just about over and the Yankees were going to win.

No hard feelings, though.

Chan Ho Park finished off the game against his former team and shut them down in the ninth. Park tossed a perfect ninth inning to end the ballgame and notch the win. The Yankees took down the almighty Halladay and beat the Phillies in the first game of their regular season World Series rematch.

It was a fantastic way to end my 23rd birthday yesterday.

As my dad and I were leaving Yankee Stadium for the train back to Westchester, I noticed an enormous amount of Phillies fans shuffling out; it looked like a sea of red hats with the letter “P” mixed in with white and navy blue pinstripes. A few Phillies fans were hearing it from the Yankee fans; in fact, a pair of Phillies fans were heckled by a couple of Yankee Stadium vendors.

“The Phillies got smoked tonight!” the vendor exclaimed.

“Yeah, well the Phils will be back tomorrow,” one of them responded.

“That’s right they’ll be back tomorrow–to lose to the Yankees again!”

Realizing they weren’t winning the argument, the two Phillies fans walked away.

When I got on the train, I sat across from a couple who was coming in from Manhattan; he and his girlfriend had gone to see Hair on Broadway. The gentleman was asking me how the game went and I gave him the full game report. He was pretty happy the Yankees won and I had a nice conversation with him about sports for the majority of the ride home.

When I got home plopped down on my bed and smiled. “I’m glad they won for me today,” I said to myself in exhaustion. “This was a great birthday.”

Dating back to last year, the Yankees are 6-0 in games I have attended at the new Stadium. Hope they keep up the trend, because on Sunday I am going again. My sister got me tickets to see the final game of the Subway Series.

3 Comments

Wow! Great pictures and great play by play of the game yesterday. Happy Birthday and many more. My oldest son’s initials are AJ as well. He’s also 23 years old l. Isn’t it great when you meet someone new and you have a great conversation with them? I love those opportunities! Well, now you’ve met another avid Phillie fan that is nice, respectful and can control themself– me . :-) Drop by and visit my blog again. I’ll visit yours.

A.J.: Great post, and awesome pics! I’m glad they won it for ya ;) Yes, Cervelli is sexy…but it sort of annoys me when other girls say that. I mean, I was the FIRST one to fall in love with him. Ever since that fateful spring training day when his wrist was broken…and then he made it to the bigs…then I remembered he played for team Italy, and how we are both Italian…then I had this DREAM once….I wish I didn’t wake up that night…♥…maybe I’ll tell you about that later, but I don’t want anyone else to see…
-Virginiahttp://pinstripepartisan.com

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